Upcoming Aatrox changes and the future

Been reading through all the feedback on the Aatrox VGU over the last week and I thought it would be good to pop in here and let you know of some art changes we will be making soon, plus give a little context behind some of the decisions on the rework.

Base Model Art Changes:

You should see some tweaks to the base model very soon on PBE. This will add a bit more detail to Aatrox and bring his colors a bit closer to previous Aatrox (Some darker reds will be added) Look out for these changes soon.

Aatrox's Wings:

The 2nd change will take a bit longer and should be added sometime within a patch or two after Aatrox hits live. We have seen a lot of players asking for Aatrox to have his wings always out, as well as feedback over the loss of Aatrox's "Banner Wings." We are going to explore some options to address both of these concerns. Currently we are using Aatroxs full wings for gameplay clarity around when he is in his ultimate state, as it is very important for players playing with or against Aatrox to know when he is in his ultimate state and therefor will resurrect when killed. As such we won't be able to give him the full open wings when not in his ult since it will greatly reduce the clarity you get from a big silhouette change. With that being said we are exploring some options that would give him smaller "banner-esque" wings when not in ultimate form. We are still in early exploration on these though so they won't make it in time for his release, but we will be adding them sometime soon after.

As for all of the design feedback I will pass it over to RiotJag for some context into the design decisions we made on Aatrox:

"So first off, the brutal truth: yes, his gameplay is dramatically different from current Aatrox, and yes, that's very intentional. We've said it a lot in the past - Aatrox's basic-attack centric drain tank play pattern does not offer enough tactical variance or counterplay. He's one of the most stat-checky fighters in the game, and when he's strong he doesn't offer a whole lot of options for opponents to fight against him. It’s very illustrative that in just a patch with no direct buffs, he moved from literally not being picked in a pro game for years to becoming arguably the highest priority top laner in the game. Aatrox is the epitome of a binary champion, and seeing him in competitive play has only reinforced the need to update his gameplay.

There’s a few we’re thinking about heavily, and we’ve definitely had a lot of internal discussion about keeping his wings (that’s been a popular one). I’ve already made some of the changes the community asked for (increasing AS/lvl, for instance) and I’m considering some other ones; just keep in mind that we are changing his identity on purpose, and suggestions like “revert everything” aren’t adding a whole lot to the discussion.

The second part is the feeling that we don't care about our community or how players feel about our roster. I understand why Aatrox mains feel this way, so let me be frank - even though we're trying to do our best for the entire League playerbase, we know that means that yes, we are changing something that you have grown to love and are attached to. But that's doesn’t mean we don’t care about what players want; in fact, it’s precisely what motivates us.

Live Aatrox has had some of the lowest play rates despite having a very healthy win rate for literally years. Players express their preferences to us every day - with their choices. And their choice across the board has been that they don't want to play Aatrox, despite that they definitely can win games with him. Of course if you're reading this, you're probably one of the few players who put in the time to understand Aatrox's playstyle and master something few others wanted to. The problem is we don't believe marginal shifts in Aatrox's kit would be enough to make him a healthy character who more players are excited to play.

What we did know is that the idea of the badass Darkin conqueror could appeal to many players, and we didn't deliver on him - so we owed players more. Aatrox was always meant to be a battlefield terror, wielding his blade with ease, forcing opponents to flee like insects - a fighter so fearless that he could not even be stopped by death itself. This rework is meant to still be true to that fantasy, and I hope that current Aatrox mains could find something to grab onto there. But that knowledge won't make you feel any better about how drastically his gameplay is changing with this rework. Though I believe in our goals and that new Aatrox delivers on them, at the end of the day I honestly feel personally uncomfortable displacing you. I’m sorry for that."

RiotJag

Thank you for your passion for Aatrox and the time you've invested into him. Both me and RiotJag will be around for the next day or 2 to answer as many questions as we can.
Thanks!"

6/18/2018 Balance Update

A balance update went out on 6/18 for crit itemization! Check out the details from the patch notes below:

"We'll be looking to make individual marksman changes in the coming patches, but we don't want to risk overbuffing them alongside item changes. To start, we're adding power to some core crit items before looking at individual champions too heavily.

Infinity Edge

TOTAL COST 3700 gold ⇒ 3600 gold

Stormrazor

ATTACK DAMAGE 70 ⇒ 75

STORM'S EDGE MOVEMENT SPEED AMOUNT 10% ⇒ 20%

STORM'S EDGE MOVEMENT SPEED DURATION 1.75 seconds ⇒ 0.75 seconds

Essence Reaver

"Essence Reaver is performing pretty well on users who have some way to "cheat" extra basic attacks (Lucian's passive or Renekton's W, or attack resets), and thus get far more ability refreshes. We want to open Essence Reaver up to a few more champions without buffing it on the core champions, and that means giving more attack speed so that champions without bonus attacks in their kit can get more bang for their buck."

Quick Hits

"After the botched launch we basically got together with engineering folks from across the company to get to the bottom of the issues and craft a plan of attack for bringing Clash back. That investigation and planning wrapped up just last Friday so we'll be talking soon."

We started out with this behavior on the spell because we were worried non-smartcast players would have a hard time discovering the "tap" attack. They would always charge past it and get the hold version without realizing it.

That said, we agree that consistency and allowing players to have a choice of how they want to play has more value here. So we will be removing the forced smartcast on PykeQ for next patch.

Thanks for the feedback!"

Riot Afic noted a hotfix went out for a crash issue with Taliyah and Karthus:

[1] "Just micropatched out a fix to the Taliyah crash (also notably affected karthus, which should also be fixed). The plan is to get it on tournament realms as well. TL;DR of cause, we removed resource leaks that weren't properly being handled on individual characters"

[2] "Fun fact: we were actually looking into this issue for a couple of weeks (initially saw reports of it happening with Karthus) and it showing up in LCS made it easier to track down. Turns out having all of the logs and data from the game makes figuring out the problem easier"

"I’m super excited to share this pilot episode with you guys, particularly those of you who watch my low-budget Patch Rundowns (hi mom). This is a much higher-quality, abridged version of those, giving a quick overview of patches as they hit competitive play, while focusing on the most impactful bits that are really going to push the meta.

If you have any feedback, hit me up in the comments, on twitter, and I’ll be keeping an eye on Reddit too. This is our pilot episode, and we’ve still got plenty to learn before it becomes as polished as this."